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“It seems like someone’s in a good mood!” a feminine voice chimed mischievously, leaning over the couch to look at her friend who was staring off into space.
Garnet eyes didn’t even look her way. The blond boy was too busy in his own head; his cheek propped up on his hand and his body unmoving. Giggles sounded out as his friends made an effort to surround him and pop his little daydream.
“Wanna bet it has something to do with him getting his ass kicked earlier?” a noir haired boy chuckled, eyeing the blond with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” the first girl spoke up again, her bubblegum hair bouncing as she flopped into the chair closest to the blond.
Purple eyes opened, violet hair falling into view as her face popped around the corner, “He did?” she didn’t need to, but she walked around into the common room with the rest of her friends. Her ears could have picked the conversation up from a mile away, but this? She wanted a front row seat for.
“Buzz off!” the blond in question finally snapped out of his dream, slapping a pink hand out of his face and turning to look at his friends, “What the fuck are you dumbasses on about?”
“You,” the purple haired girl shrugged, sitting beside her pink haired counterpart and fiddling with the headphone jacks at the ends of her elongated earlobes. She wasn’t the only one with an odd physical appearance; the noir haired boy sitting across from the three had tape dispensers for elbows!
They were all a bit on the weird side; a group of super powered kids training to become Professional Heroes.
Bubblegum skin and matching curly hair with two tan horns popping out, she was Ashido Mina- a fitting name for a girl who could produce acid from her body, “Yeah, we’re talking about you…” she giggled, moving out of the blond’s face for a bit, “An a certain Midoriya Izuku!”
“What about the nerd?” the blond flicked his hand up, sparks threatening to cackle and pop in his palm. His quirk, his power, was the fact that he had nitroglycerin-like sweat that he could explode in his hands. Bakugou Katsuki- the one, the only, and Midoriya Izuku was his childhood friend- a formerly quirkless boy that was given a power from the Number One Hero: All Might.
Sero Hanta, the noir haired, tape elbowed boy, pointed at his friend with an accusatory finger, “You look too happy. He’s the reason.” He feared no god, leaning onto the armrest and giving Bakugou the facial equivalent of a shrug.
“The fuck he is!” Bakugou snapped.
“So he is!” pointing with her earphone jack, Kyouka Jirou spoke up, laying her legs on top of Ashido and settling in for the drama.
“Not,” the blond rolled his eyes, huffing and flopping back against the couch, “But why the fuck does it matter to you assholes, anyway? Can’t I just be in a good mood- I’m not, by the way, but even I have good fucking days.”
“Yeah, you have good days whenever you spar with Midoriya,” Sero countered.
Bakugou sat back up, “Because I like training? Once one of you assholes can give me a proper fucking fight, I’ll be happy after fight you dumbasses, too.”
“Oh bullshit,” Ashido held a hand over her chest, “You have been gunning to fight with Todoroki since first year, and you still don’t get this happy sparring with him.” She pointed a perfectly manicured black nail at the blond.
It wasn’t as if she was wrong. Todoroki Shouto was a prodigy child- a kid birthed with the perfect quirk thanks to his eugenicist father who was also the Number Two Hero until the fall of All Might. Son of Endeavour, Todoroki was born with a dual powered quirk; half of his boy was hot, producing fire and flames, while the other half was cold, producing ice and freezing everything in its path.
He and Bakugou were rivals- at first it was one sided, because Todoroki was too caught up in Mr. Bone Breaking Midoriya, but they steadily grew into friends and proper rivals just like Bakugou and Midoriya had done so after their rocky history. The explosive Hero in training and the icyhot boy had been enemies in the final round of the Sports Festival, in which Todoroki had neglected to use the fire half of his quirk during their battle. Bakugou had an overwhelming victory which he refused to acknowledge because the prodigy child wasn’t using his full quirk.
Steadily, he worked into using his fire more, no longer associating it with his ass of a father, and he was one of Bakugou’s favorite sparring partners- both because of the challenge, his raw power, and the fact that fighting was the blond’s way of showing affection.
Bakugou, however, rolled his eyes, denying the accusations, “The fuck does Half n’ Half have to do with any of this?”
“He’s like!” Ashido raised her hands up, “Way stronger than us!” The others nodded, a sigh or two being let into the circle; just because they were all Hero students did not mean they were all a part of the same power pool.
“You never get like this after fighting with him-” Jirou finished Ashido’s sentence, leaning forward to better look at Bakugou who just kind of shrunk into himself grumpily.
“Doesn’t mean shit,” he weakly defended, crossing his arms and looking away. It did, of course, actually mean something. That something was the feelings that he harbored towards Midoriya Izuku.
Now, they had always been a little weird, never really able to name the tension between each other. Bakugou projected his insecurities onto Midoriya who idolized him throughout their childhood- seeing as the young blond wasn’t used to such purehearted admiration, surrounded by deceptive smiles. Naturally as a child does, he convinced himself that Midoriya actually hated him; it was easier than accepting the foreign feelings being presented to him.
Midoriya, on the other hand, never stopped looking up to Bakugou. It was, honestly, extremely easy for Bakugou to convince himself that the forest haired boy did actually hate him- and his open affection was just secretly him looking down on Bakugou. In his eyes, it didn’t matter what he did, Midoriya never stopped looking at him the same way he did when they were kids.
With that, alone, his actions- internally, of course; there was no excusing the way he behaved, no matter what he thought, but his actions made sense for him.
It got more complicated when power was added in, of course.
“See, you’re deflecting-” Ashido pointed out, but Bakugou rolled his eyes- deflecting again- “Am not,” he lied.
Bakugou was a prodigy in his own right- he wasn’t nearly as sculpted as a child born of eugenics and raised by one of the world’s strongest Heroes, but, to the world, his quirk was naturally exceptional! Of course, it was nothing but a timebomb without his intense training and serious personal standards; however, he was resilient and hardworking- no matter how little credit the people around him gave him; writing him off as a “natural talent” and “gifted.”
Once again, Midoriya was different.
Unlike everyone else, he didn’t expect Bakugou to be strong at all times- whether that was because of his deep seeded Heroism or because he cared for Bakugou specifically or if it was indeed both: the blond would never be truly sure, but it was only fuel for his tiny twisted worldview. Regardless of how he felt about the help, there was still the ever present itch:
Midoriya Izuku was someone who could not do anything. He was quirkless, but, even more than that, he was clumsy, graceless, and physically rather weak. No matter how much he admired Heroes, the fact of the matter was that he didn’t put any effort into his own body, into his techniques, into his training- into any of it! He was a scrawny spineless loser!
But he wanted to stand beside Bakugou Katsuki.
A boy who was naturally gifted, on top of incredibly hardworking. Bakugou put hours upon hours into his body, into his quirk, into his studies, into everything he did! The explosive blond refused to accept anything less than the best, but Midoriya seemed to just accept anything that was given to him.
Hell, he couldn’t even stand up to his middle school bully, but he wanted to be a Hero?
It felt more and more like Midoriya was just mocking him as they grew older. He thought that he could be as strong as Bakugou without putting in any of the work. Over time, it became easier and easier to convince himself that he was right, but it had been hard to work himself out of that mindset.
“It’s not fuckin like that!” Bakugou snapped at the way his friends were looking at him.
Of course now, he couldn’t get enough of Midoriya’s strength- seeing as Midoriya was actually putting in the effort to stand on the same field as Bakugou had been.
“Then what IS it like?” Jirou didn’t hold back her smirk, eyebrow quirking up.
Even through all of the shit that they went through, Bakugou could never shake the underlying feelings he carried for Midoriya. He tried to convince himself that he hated Midoriya, but he never could, no, there was always something there, some itch that he could never scratch.
“It’s!” he snapped, looking for the words; looking for a way to explain just how insanely relieved he felt when he finally heard those words, [“This whole time, I’ve been looking up to you!”]. He couldn’t describe just how right it felt to stand beside of Midoriya- not that he ever really stopped. Even at their worst, they seemed to gravitate towards each other. He couldn’t explain how anxious, how sick he felt seeing Midoriya hurt or in pain.
“Fuck…” he cursed, looking down at his hands, “I don’t fucking know…”
“So, what do you know?” Jirou promptly poked his thigh with her foot, casually encouraging their closed up friend to talk about his emotions. The mood in the room dropped- not into awkward territory, but no one in that circle was going to be the fucker who made fun of someone’s honest feelings- much less Bakugou ‘fuck feelings’ Katsuki. They were jokesters. Not assholes.
Ashido piped up, seeing the blond’s hesitance, “Don’t worry. Most people are out at their internships. You can be honest.”
Even taking it a step further, Jirou slouched a bit more and plugged her earphone jack into the floor, listening in for familiar muttering, “And Midoriya’s busy with homework-” she paused to make out what he was saying, “He’s stuck on question five.”
Unknowingly, Bakugou let out a small sigh, pushing himself into the corner of the couch more. Garnet eyes looked down and his hands as he fiddled with his palms, “I wanna hold his stupid hands…” he admitted. He still regretted that day- when he had fallen off of a log, and Midoriya extended a hand out to him. He had slapped it away defensively, but he regretted not taking it.
Of course, he wasn’t wrong when he said it; the Midoriya of that time could never have been a Hero, and that was a fact. He would have gotten himself killed… but that didn’t make Bakugou’s actions correct… and that didn’t mean he didn’t regret it.
“I wanna make him smile… that big goofy ass grin of his…” he couldn’t help but think about the what if; what if their friendship never went south.
Being with Midoriya… it made him feel whole again. It felt like something deep in his soul was righted, “I wanna spend time with him and shit… take him places…” Being friends with Midoriya- genuine friends again, it reminded him of just how lonely he had actually been.
Midoriya made him feel broken and whole all at once.
“Anything else?” Ashido gently pressed, leaning closer to Jirou as she bit her lip. Oh, she wanted so badly to tease her lovestruck friend- the look on Bakugou’s face was indescribable. He looked so at peace; there was a gentle blush dusting his cheeks and all of his features softened as his lips were quirked up at the corners ever so slightly.
If they took a picture and sent it to Midoriya, he would fucking swoon.
Bakugou looked up at the ceiling, holding out his hands and gripping his fingers in and out of fists, “I wanna…”
Sero unhelpfully- helpfully?- threw a pillow into Bakugou’s lap, but, instead of getting mad, the explosive blond just hugged it, burying his face into the plushness of it and mumbling out, “I wanna hold him…” He had never been one for physical affection- unfortunately that was just how he had been raised, but holding Midoriya in his arms once was all that he needed to learn just how badly he wanted that.
Kirishima would have been foaming at the mouth hearing that- so would Kaminari, but they were still busy getting snacks for movie night. Kirishima Eijirou, a boisterous redhead with a quirk that made his skin as hard as rock and Kaminari Denki, an electric blond with equally shocking powers; they were both a part of the squad, but they were currently missing the discussion.
“I wanna make him some fuckin’ katsudon- or a good goddamned breakfast,” his tone switched really quick, from sappy into annoyed, “That dumbass never grabs a good enough breakfast before running out the fucking door. Yesterday he left with just fucking toast! Toast! He needs more fucking calories than that! Especially if he’s training to surpass me, he needs to fucking eat properly.” He threw his hands up in the air, temporarily placing the pillow in his lap. Ever the mother hen, Bakugou rolled his eyes before grabbing the pillow and sitting back into the couch again.
“He’s just forgetful,” Ashido sighed, “With as much as he talks about Heroes having proper diets, you would think he’d be more careful about his own.”
Sero spoke up in his defense- of course, it wouldn’t be a conversation without all sides being accounted for, “He does usually do a pretty good job at managing his nutrition. It’s just when he gets in that-” he paused to move his hands “-hyperfixy mood. The rest of the world just kinda fades away.” Turning to Bakugou, he pointed a finger, “That’s when you have to look out for him.”
“That’s the thing!” Bakugou snapped, throwing his hands in the air, “The nerd doesn’t fucking look out for himself. He still has that same fucking self depricating streak-”
“You would think with all that we’ve been through he would have grown out of it,” Ashido rolled her eyes, letting out a sigh as she fiddled with one of Jirou’s headphone jacks, keeping it carefully away from her mouth.
“Well, you two have been through a lot. It’s only natural that you’d want to look out for him,” Jirou pointed out, but Bakugou flinched at that.
“After all the shit I put him through…”
Sero, helpfully, threw a ball of tape at the blond’s face, getting him to snap, “The fuck was that for?” Of course, the noir haired boy just shrugged.
“It’s what Midoriya would have wanted me to do.”
He wasn’t wrong. For better or for worse, Midoriya never held Bakugou’s past against him- it kind of made things worse throughout the years, honestly? No matter how many times the explosive blond told him to ‘go away’ or ‘leave’; no matter how bad the air between them got, Midoriya never walked away. It wasn’t entirely Bakugou’s fault that he assumed Midoriya had ulterior motives based on that. He could have just… left, but he didn’t.
Not even Midoriya himself could really tell you why, though. He did genuinely admire Bakugou- despite his personality being as… much of an acquired taste as it was. Now that the blond saw that in its true form, he couldn’t unsee it, but it still never made much sense to him.
Jirou spoke up first, vaguely gesturing to Sero with the earphone jack that wasn’t in Ashido’s hand, “He’s got a point.”
“I’ll never understand that part of him…” Bakugou trailed off, looking into the distance, “Shitty nerd never puts himself first.” Whether he overlooked their past because he was truly blinded by Bakugou’s strengths or whether it was because Midoriya wanted to forget his own past as well, he would never know. Perhaps it was a bit of both. That never stopped emerald gems from widening dazzlingly, from locking onto Bakugou as if he had a second- an extra quirk.
Ashido gently let go of Jirou’s earphone jack and leaned over onto Bakugou’s shoulder, shaking him a little affectionately, “Don’t sell yourself short! Midoriya isn’t the only one who sees good things in you! He stuck around because he wanted to!”
“Who stuck around?” a friendly, albeit deep, voice spoke up curiously. In his earlier years, the action would have startled Bakugou; if the voice weren’t so familiar, he would have jumped.
“Midoriya.” Sero helpfully provided as he took a bag of snacks from the two new people in the circle.
“Ah, Blasty, are you getting down in the dumps again? He said he forgives you, he forgives you!” the second voice spoke up, more light and jovial as the two settled into the circle themselves.
“He shouldn’t-”
“Not your decision.”
Ruby and garnet met at a standstill, but the redhead kept handing out snacks with his electric blond partner. Kirishima and Kaminari integrated themselves into the circle without a hitch, practically attached at the hip as they sat down.
“Anyways, it’s not guilt this time,” Ashido shook her head, before comically leaning even further into Bakugou’s personal space, “Blasty over here was telling us about how his heart explodes when he thinks about our precious Midoriya!” She exaggerated, placing one of her hands over Bakugou’s heart.
Of course, the blond pushed her off, snapping, “Fuck off!” with a palmful of sparks from the hand that wasn’ in his friend’s face, “And I never fucking said that, stop making shit up.”
“You were talking about your feelings, though,” Sero provided, earning himself a glare.
“I just think the shitty nerd needs to relax a bit more and take better fucking care of himself. I expect nothing less of my fucking rival,” Bakugou rolled his eyes, crossing his arms with the pillow up against his chest.
“He also needs to use a different formula-” Jirou jutted in out of the blue.
Kaminari and Kirishima were caught off guard- well, they were caught off guard the most, but Ashido spoke up before they could as she turned to Jirou, “Hun, are you still spying on him?” What a multitasker, honestly, but with what could really be classified as two sets of ears distinguishing between varying conversations was a talent that she had perfected over the years and for a good reason… most of the time.
“Yeah, I figured I could keep an eye on him in case he decides he needs a snack or something,” she shrugged, “You know, so he doesn’t walk in on our conver-” pausing, she looked up as if that was going to help her hear better, before mumbling, “He’s just going over to his bed.”
“Anyways, you know,” she resumed, fiddling with her other earphone jack, “making sure that he doesn’t walk in on the conversation.
Bakugou relaxed, smiling in his own way as he joked, “I knew I kept you around for a reason.”
“I’m so lucky,” she chuckled before reaching her legs over and pushing at Bakugou’s thigh with her foot again, “Anyways, tell me more about your feelings for Midoriya.”
Rolling his eyes with a huff, the ash blond put both of his hands up in a ‘W’ shape, “The fuck else is there to say?”
“Do you want to look longingly into his eyes?” Kaminari joked, looking over at Bakugou and fluttering his eyelashes in a comically overdramatic way. He leaned over Kirishima in order to be closer to Bakugou, putting his snacks in his lap and his hand over his chest.
“Maybe…” the blond admitted, looking away with a ‘tch’ before regaining his composure and returning his gaze to the circle, “The fuck does that have to do with anything?”
Kirishima nearly jumped up, grabbing Kaminari’s hand and holding it out for Bakugou, “Do you want to hold his hand?” His face lit up in a beam that nearly produced its own light- unrelated to the human conductor he had in his grasp.
“Already been over that,” Sero pointed with his usual shit-eating grin… not that he ever really meant for it to be a shit eating grin; he just had one of those faces, “He does.”
“What’s wrong with that, hah?” the ash blond demanded.
Naturally, the romance loving girl was the first to pipe up; she would have stood up if not for Jirou’s legs over her lap, “Nothing’s wrong with it!” she declared, “Longing is a perfectly healthy emotion!”
“Besides, I’m sure if you asked him to, Midoriya would hold your hand in a heartbeat!” Kirishima added gleefully, shoving a clenched fist in the air, “How manly.”
Huffing and rolling his eyes, Bakugou sat back in his corner of the couch, “I am not doing that, Shitty Hair.” He didn’t even want to imagine doing something like that- how embarrassing! He would never recover. Besides, how would they even move past something like that? If it sucked, everything would become really awkward. If it didn’t suck, everything would still become really awkward. Yeah, no, they held hands once, and Bakugou pretended to forget about the whole thing. He was taking that to the grave.
“But you could-” Kaminari butted in, pointing at the other blond.
Sero even took over, laughing, “I bet we would be able to hear his crying from down here- even without Jirou’s quirk.”
“I might have to cover my ears,” Jirou joked.
“Come on, guys, it’s not that funny,” Ashido popped in, watching how Bakugou bit his lip, “We all know how emotional he is. Besides, it just means that he has a strong connection to our Blasty here,” she gently nudged the blond’s shoulder.
Jirou was the first to nod, “Yeah, it’s not a bad thing.”
“It’s kinda refreshing, ya know?” Kaminari piped up.
“Yeah,” Bakugou looked up at the ceiling, “He’s always fuckin’ been like that…”
Silence settled among them for a moment; no one wanted to break the comfortable fuzz that floated into the conversation, but Kirishima’s curiosity took over, “So, uh, what prompted, you know? This?” he gestured to the circle.
“Well someone always feels better after he spars with Midoriya-” Jirou answered, using her free earphone jack to point at Bakugou, so we started talking about why.”
“I just wanna be closer to him… n that shit, I guess…” Bakugou mumbled, looking away from the circle; he still wasn’t used to being open about his feelings, let alone being honest about even the ones he wanted to choke down- and he tried. He tried for years to ignore the way he felt pulled in by Midoriya’s atmosphere, but he never could. It was infuriating and comforting all at once.
Once again, it was Ashido who leaned into Bakugou’s personal space bubble, cooing, “You can just say you wanna be his boyfriend! We’re all pals here! Zipped lips!” She made a point to ‘zip up’ her lips comically.
And again, Bakugou pushed her out of his space, snapping, “I don’t wanna be his fucking boyfriend!”
No, that was too embarrassing to think about. His boyfriend? No, Bakugou refused to consider it.
“Oh,” Ashido paused, still leaning into Bakugou’s palm. She sat back in short time, but her face considerably changed, “So you want like… a QPR kinda deal or something?”
“The fuck is that?” Bakugou paused his anger to be confused.
“A QPR? A Queer-Platonic Relationship.”
Receiving the same look, Ashido had no choice but to explain, “It’s like…” She gestured with her hands to no avail, all but letting out a sigh when Jirou took over, “It’s a relationship built on immense trust and understanding, you know? Like you want to plan out your lives together, but not in a romantic way.”
“Like a relationship, but without the romance. You know?” Ashido added.
Kirishima raised his hand hesitantly, but he asked, “So, like friendship?” For someone who focused so much on deep friendships, it was rather reasonable for him to assume that a platonic relationship was similar to… a normal friendship.
In an interesting turn, Kaminari was the one who piped up, “Not really.” He didn’t know too much about Queer Platonic Relationships, but they did tend to come up in neurodivergent circles; classifying QPRs is also rather difficult because they look different for every person, too.
“Like, I love you guys, but I’m probably not going to plan out my entire future solely around all of you- and I wouldn’t expect you guys to do that either. With Queer Platonic Relationships, that is something more, you know, normal, right? It has the same intensity as a romantic- or, well, a healthy romantic relationship would, but just-” he paused to shrug, ignoring the fact that he was still holding Kirishima’s hand, “You know without the romance.”
Everyone nodded at the information, but Bakugou took back over the conversation with, “Yeah, I don’t know if that’s it…”
“Could you kiss him?” Ashido finger-gunned him with a grin, even if the ash blond just looked at her like she grew another head.
“The fuck does that have to do with anything?”
Sero piped up from his seat, despite staying quiet for the majority of the discussion, “I mean, kissing isn’t really a platonic thing, right? Usually people say that if you can imagine yourself, you know, kissing someone, that you want to date them.” He paused for a moment before adding, “Like… romantically?”
Kaminari used his free hand to point out, “You can kiss in a QPR- and date, too, I mean if you want to call it a date.”
“Is that not a romantic thing?” the noir haired boy bounced back, having the least exposure to the idea of a Queer Platonic Relationship out of all of them- except for Bakugou, of course.
Ashido at least heard it in passing. Kirishima didn’t know anything either, but his way of showing his affection was “abnormal” to some. Kaminari knew of it vicariously from his online circles, and Jirou was the most knowledgeable of them all- being the type of person who enjoys talking about socioeconomics in her spare time, speaking her input, “For some people, kissing can be platonic- or they’re comfortable kissing to show affection,” she twirled her earphone jack in her hand, “And with dating, you know, it’s just a term. Like how people say, ‘it’s a date!’ when they just mean ‘that’s settled’ or ‘I’ll see you there!’”
“Are y’all kissin your homies?” Sero joked, not really being one for affection of that sort.
Kirishima was the one who answered this time, “Yeah!” it was almost a question- either ‘of course, what are you on about?’ or ‘how have you not seen it?’ He pulled Kaminari’s hand towards him and gave it a lil kiss.
“Well thank you for not bringing that over here,” he laughed, pointing at the condiment haired duo, “I would not like any kisses from the homies, but I appreciate the enthusiasm.”
Nodding understandably, Kirishima blinked at Sero before looking back into the circle. They had all slowly expanded their boundaries to accommodate one another, but Sero had never really been one for physical touch- he preferred parallel play, so, while Kirishima was escalating to hand kisses, Sero was just vibing beside of his besties.
They all had their own love languages.
Bakugou, again, was the one to pull them back into the earlier conversation, sitting on the edge of the couch now with his hands laying on his lap, “O…kay… so you can kiss in a platonic whatever-” “A Queer Platonic Relationship,” “Yes, that, so what makes it different from a romantic relationship? If kissing can be platonic?”
“For some people, kissing can be platonic-” Jirou interjected.
Kaminari picked up the conversation from there, “Intent. I guess.”
“So, it’s just whatever makes you feel comfortable?” Kirishima turned to the electric blond, who nodded, “Whatever works you know.”
Again, Jirou had the most insightful word on it, “Just like, you know, all romantic relationships look different, all non-romantic relationships also look different. It’s all about comfortable boundaries. Ashido likes to talk about her feelings, but Bakugou doesn’t. They’re not always big things.” She shrugged, before adding, “Or like how Kirishima and Kaminari both like physical affection. Sero and I don’t. Regardless of platonic, queer platonic, or romantic relationships that’s not going to change, but the boundaries might be different. Like, I don’t want to kiss my homies, but I wouldn’t mind, you know,,,” she trailed off, fiddling with her headphone jack, “kissing a girlfriend or a partner.”
“I don’t think I really want to kiss, period,” Sero said between bites of his snacks.
“That’s valid!” Kirishima cheered, as he always does like the supportive guy he is. Of course, most of the circle nodded nonverbally, because they weren’t going to not support their friend.
“Yeah, good to know, but what does any of this have to do with Shitty Deku? Or have we just fuckin’ moved on from that?” Bakugou regretted saying it the moment he realized that he had stupidly reminded the circle that he was the center of the conversation- unfortunately, he still wanted insight on his feelings towards Midoriya.
Ashido grinned, leaning forward over Jirou’s legs- another good example of boundaries. She might not have liked overly physical affection, but she was fine with casual physical affection, especially when she was the one initiating it. While they weren’t as close as Kirishima and Kaminari, who were practically one whole person with the near seamless way their sides slotted together, they still weren’t as detached as Sero would have been- if he wasn’t alone on the couch, seeing as the duo were sitting on the floor.
Still, she had just been reminded of why they weren’t watching the movie that Kaminari had brought, “Well, that just begs the question!”
Of course, Sero found it hilarious to steal her thunder, pointing at Bakugou, “What are your intentions with Midoriya?”
“Hey!” she huffed, throwing a piece of popcorn that Jirou had handed her at Sero, “That was my line!”
Bakugou sat back, “I just want to hold his stupid fucking hand, why is this so complicated?” he groaned, rubbing his hands across his face.
“It’s good to know what you want!” Ashido chimed, “You know, so that you can be upfront with him when the time comes!”
“Not gonna come.”
Kirishima was the one to poke at Bakugou this time- not physically, but he did add, “Don’t be like that! It’s not manly to bottle up your feelings! Besides! It’s not really fair to Midoriya, is it? And who knows!”- they all pretty much knew; it was obvious to everyone that spent five minutes in Midoriya’s presence that was not Bakugou that emerald gems held some sort of affection for their explosive blond, “-he might feel something… more towards you, too!”
“Yeah, with your guys’ history-” Kaminari knew it was a sore spot, but it had to be said, “He’s probably still you know… about reaching out to you. You gotta be the one to let him know that… not entirely platonic- or not entirely, you know? I guess normal? Since QPRs are still platonic, but they’re not… just normal friendships?”
He trailed off, but eventually remembered his point, “Anyways, he probably doesn’t want to overstep, you know? You’ve gotta be the one to step up.”
“Can you see him romantically?” Ashido asked, looking over at Bakugou.
The blond paused, puzzled, “The fuck makes it romantic?” They had just gone over how difficult feelings were to conceptualize.
Glances floated around the room; most of them had crushes and the like before, but describing such a feeling- in a way that couldn’t be perceived in a platonic notion, it was hard. Romantic intent also came in many different forms- different forms that usually required more than a few little sentences.
“Heart flutters?” Jirou piped up, “Like you know, a sort of… giddiness?” She fiddled with her jack more, before elaborating, “Like when you see them you get excited, but you don’t know why- it’s kind of a physical thing, really? You feel it in your chest- uh I guess…”
Midoriya did make his heart speed up, what with the way his eyes went wide and excited. His hands would wave and he would smile like the sun was caressing his cheeks. It wasn’t a feeling Bakugou could really land as positive or negative, but he certainly felt something whenever the forest haired Hero in training would turn his affection towards Bakugou.
“You know, but it’s also a sense of comfort?” Kaminari added, “Like! You’re excited, yeah, but it’s also important that you’re content. If you’re always nervous around the person you ‘like’, then there’s not much you can do about that…”
He could check that off, too. Being with Midoriya was the most natural thing to him so long as he didn’t think too much about it.
Kirishima held out his hand, hardening it, “It kind of makes you feel mushy. I think…”
Bakugou Katsuki would never admit to feeling mushy- but he did want to squish Midoriya’s freckled cheeks and ruffle his forest hair and a million other things that he would also not say out loud.
“It’s something that’s always on your mind! It’s like a pleasant itch, you know? Like you just want to put everything on the table, and you just hope that they’ll accept it! And when they do, it’s like a huge relief-” Ashido’s was the most enthusiastic as she waved her hands, but they dropped shortly after, “I mean I think, at least. You know, I’ve always loved romance, but I’ve never really felt that way towards anyone. I’ve always been kinda busy training…” She was popular in middle school, friends with everyone, but she never really established deeper connections with her peers.
‘Laying his entire self down on the table, and hoping [the object of his affection] accepted it’... was a pretty routine thing for Bakugou, by that point. He could still recall his own clawing desperation, just wanting to put himself in front of Midoriya, to be laid out on the table of judgement; even if Midoriya didn’t accept him, he knew what he needed to say.
Sero spoke up, “Like it doesn’t matter what you are doing, as long as you’re doing it together.”
Yeah, it didn’t matter what they were doing. From training to studying to eventually just eating together or hanging out, it felt so distinctly immeasurable; like nothing else. Bakugou found himself leaning onto his knees again, feet flat against the floor, “Huh. So that- all of that is what romantic love feels like?”
Again, silence filtered in like the sunlight from the windows.
“Maybe,” Jirou broke the silence again, “Who knows, man?”
Kirishima leaned back against Kaminari’s shoulder, “Does it matter? I mean, if you’re happy together, you’re happy together. Romantic, platonic, sexual, whatever. Do they really matter if you’re happy, regardless?”
“But could you kiss him? Like do you want to kiss him?” Ashido understood the moment, and she, too, felt like labels were unnecessary, but she also deeply wanted to know the answer to the question she had brought up earlier.
Hoping on the train, Kaminari piped up, “Do you wanna cuddle with him?”
“Would you be comfortable sharing the same bed?” Jirou pointed to Bakugou before adding, “You know, if he’s napping right now, he seems to move a lot. I don’t think he’s napping, but he does like to move around- he’s been rolling around with his pillow for a good minute here.”
“Please stop spying on him,” Bakugou huffed. Yeah, as much as he didn’t want Midoriya- or anyone else for that matter- to walk in on his… whatever the fuck this was. However, wasn’t he being the invasive one? Listening where he wasn’t invited? Well, not him, but Jirou was still narrating to the room.
A little annoyed that her question was being ignored, Ashido swiped the conversation with, “Could you fuck him?”
“Now, hey, you don’t need to fuck to be in a relationship,” Sero pointed out, and, of course, Kaminari brought up the equally important part, “Yeah, and you don’t need to be in a relationship to fuck. Friends with Benefits are a thing.” To both parts, the circle nodded, seeing as they were both important to acknowledge.
“Friends should come with dental. That’s a better benefit than sex, honestly,” the noir haired boy rolled his eyes, expressing distaste for the art of sex.
Bakugou snorted at the notion, rolling his eyes and hoping the conversation didn’t loop back around to whether or not he could- or wanted to- kiss Midoriya. It was weird to think about. He’d just burn that bridge when- if- he ever got to it. As for whether or not he could fuck him- yeah, that was also not a conversation he was having any time soon, but he could certainly admire the framework.
“Could you go on dates?” Kirishima asked, “And do those things like sharing straws or whatever?”
“Oh! What about showering together- just the two of you, but not like!” Kaminari waved his arm, “Not like in a weird way, you know, but being that comfortable with each other. To the point where you don’t need it to be a public bath or whatever.”
Even Sero jumped in, “So, you said that you want to cook for him, but would you ever hand feed him?”
Causing Jirou to add on, “If he wanted to feed you, would you do the ‘ah’?”
“No!” Bakugou snapped, his cackling palms burning the images in his head to a crisp, but, unfortunately, that was just sealing his fate, seeing as Sero, Jirou, and Ashido jumped up- or to a more upright sitting position- and cheered, “So he does answer!”
“I’m not answering! Fuck off!”
Kaminari, however, whined, still stuck in the words said moments before, “Wait when did you say you wanted to cook for him? You want to cook for him? Can you cook for me? Like what’s the criteria for that?”
Beside of him, Kirishima chuckled, “A long history and deep seeded issues.”
“Damn…” Kaminari huffed, “Would adorable puppy eyes work?”
Jirou answered that one, pointing at him with her jack, “Probably not unless they’re green”
“You’re right…” he sighed.
In the corner, Bakugou snapped, fully standing up, “If I go and fucking ask him out, will you assholes stop pestering me about this!” He didn’t wait for an answer, the tips of his ears red as he walked out, “I’m going to hang out with someone that doesn’t annoy the shit out of me. You fuckers can do whatever!”
“Good luck!”